Law Commons^™

Guttmacher & Weihofen: Psychiatry And The Law., Morris Ploscowe

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Psychiatry and the Law. By Manfred. S. Guttmacher and Henry Weihofen.

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Deductibility By An Employee Of Sum Paid In Settlement Of Claim Arising From His Operation Of Automobile Used In Company's Business, Richard B. Barnett S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner and one Elkins were employed by a corporation which they had organized to engage in the electrical contracting business. They furnished their own automobiles to transport men and material from job to job, and were reimbursed by the corporation for operating expenses. The corporation also paid for insurance and repairs of the automobiles. While Elkins was using petitioner's car to drive two employees to a job in progress, a collision occurred causing personal injuries to the two employees, who recovered a judgment against petitioner which he finally settled by payment of $4,000 in excess of the amount of the …

Torts - Child's Right To Recover For Alienation Of Parent's Affection, Marvin O. Young S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's parents were divorced in 1934 when plaintiff was five years old. Custody of plaintiff was awarded to her mother, but plaintiff alleged that she received "usual paternal love, affection, maintenance, and support" from her father until 1941, when plaintiff's father took defendant as his mistress, keeping her until his death in 1952. Plaintiff brought this action for damages on the theory that defendant alienated the affections of her father, thereby depriving plaintiff of fatherly affection, guidance and support. Defendant's demurrer was overruled by the trial court. On appeal, held, reversed. In the absence of a statute, a child …

Advancements: Ii, Harold I. Elbert

Michigan Law Review

A voluntary inter vivos transfer by a parent to a child is not an advancement so long as the transferor lives. The purpose of the doctrine is to equalize an intestate' s property among his children. It is auxiliary to the distribution of his estate that the question of advancement is raised. The death of the transferor is not enough to give rise to the doctrine. The person seeking to charge the intestate's heirs with an advancement must prove several additional facts. The legislation of each state determines what must be proved in order to charge the transferee with an …

Aliens - Naturalization - Netural Aliens Who Sought Relief From Military Service Barred From Becoming United States Citizens, John Houck S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

During World War II, an alien who was a citizen or a subject of a neutral country was allowed to escape service in the armed forces of the United States by signing Selective Service Form DSS 301. A release thus obtained carried with it a disability ever to become a citizen of the United States. A substantial number of neutral aliens availed themselves of this relief from military service. Today, the courts are faced with the problem of whether signing Form 301 shall in every case prevent the alien from becoming a citizen. It is the purpose of this comment …

Corporations - Effect Of A Provision In Articles Of Incorporation Permitting The Counting Of Interested Directors For Quorum Purposes, James W. Callison S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, minority stockholders, sought to restrain the consummation of a merger agreement between defendant Mayflower and Hilton corporations because the plan had not been approved by a quorum of disinterested directors of Mayflower. Defendants relied upon a provision in Mayflower's articles of incorporation which stated that " . . . any director may be counted in determining the existence of a quorum at any meeting of the Board of Directors of this Corporation for the purpose of authorizing any contract or transaction [between this Corporation and any other corporation in which any director or officer of this Corporation is pecuniarily …

Corporations - Securities Act Of 1933 - Stock Sale To Employees As A Public Offer, Paul B. Campbell S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued to enjoin defendant corporation from offering stock for sale to its employees without first complying with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. Defendant claimed that its offer was not a public offer and therefore it came under a class of transactions which were exempt from the registration requirements. The offer was made to about 500 of the company's 7,000 employees. The company classified the offer as one made only to ''key employees." The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment for defendant. On certiorari, held, reversed, two justices dissenting. …

Criminal Procedure - Juries - Effect Of Disqualified Juror On The Verdict, Joseph M. Kortenhof S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of selling whiskey and imprisoned in the county jail. After the time for appeal had elapsed he discovered that one jury member had been an unpardoned convict. In a habeas corpus proceeding the defendant urged that the judgment was void and subject to collateral attack. The county court refused to discharge the defendant. On appeal, held, affirmed. Discovery after the verdict that a convict sat on the jury, contrary to statute, gives an automatic right to a new trial. However, since the defect only renders the verdict voidable and not void it must be challenged within …

Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Actual Rather Than Possible Facts As Determining Certainty Of Vesting, Paul B. Campbell S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

T died testate, leaving a life estate to her children A and B, with the remainder to granddaughter C. The will further provided that if other body heirs of A and B survived their deaths, then such heirs should share equally with C; and if all the grandchildren should die without leaving heirs of their body, then the property was to pass to T's brothers and sisters or their representatives. A and B survived but T died without further issue. Later C also died without issue. X held conveyances deeding to him the interests of the …

Labor Law - Labor - Management Relations Act - Attempt To Institute Consumer Boycott As Unfair Labor Practice, George B. Berridge S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In attempting to induce certain employees of defendant, a manufacturer of bakery products, to join a bakery workers' union, the union and several labor councils picketed retail stores selling defendant's goods in Los Angeles. Placards carried by the pickets stated that defendant was non-union and on the 'We-do-not-patronize" list of various labor organizations. A California state court granted defendant a preliminary injunction against the picketing. Thereupon the National Labor Relations Board applied to federal district court for a preliminary injunction restraining defendant from invoking the injunction granted by the state court, claiming that since the unions' conduct was an unfair …

Notes, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The information given in the notes is derived from inspection of the books, publishers' literature, and the ordinary library sources.

Palsgraf Revisited, William L. Prosser

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps the most celebrated of all tort cases is Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Company. Certainly it is one of the most controversial. Thirteen judges in all passed upon the case, and seven of them were for the plaintiff, at least in the sense that they considered that the issue was one to be left to the jury. Four of the remaining six, sitting on the Court of Appeals of New York, had the :final word, and they set aside the verdict, dismissed the complaint, and ordered judgment for the defendant. The Advisers of the Restatement of Torts debated …

Borderland - Where Copyright And Design Patent Meet, Richard W. Pogue

Michigan Law Review

Copyright law and design patent law contemplate basically different objects of protection. Yet at the outer fringes of these types of protection certain concepts overlap to form a rather undefined borderland in which it is difficult to say what law is applicable-copyright law, patent law, neither, or both. It is the purpose of this paper to explore this borderland area in the light of traditional copyright and patent law principles, with attention given to policy considerations involved, and to offer suggestions toward drawing a sharper boundary between the two.

Securities - Application Of Antideficiency Judgment Statute To Second Purchase Money Trust Deed Where Security Is Exhausted By Foreclosure Of First Deed, John Houck S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

To secure the purchase price of land, defendant executed a promissory note and first deed of trust in favor of a savings and loan association, and a second note and deed in favor of plaintiff-vendor. On default of both obligations, the savings and loan association foreclosed upon the land. The resulting sale completely exhausted the security, and plaintiff brought the present action upon his note. Defendant interposed section 580b of the California Code of Civil Procedure, which specifies that "no deficiency judgment shall lie in any event after any sale of real property for failure of the purchaser to complete …

Corrigendum, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A correction for a previous article, "On Amending the TreatyMaking Power: A Comparative Study of the Problem of Self-Executing Treaties," in the June 1953.

Constitutional Law - Public Trial In Criminal Cases, Carl S. Krueger S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The criminal trial has been traditionally open to the public in Anglo-Saxon procedure, as it was in Roman and other civilized societies of an earlier time. The public trial of today, however, has been subjected to considerable criticism on the ground that there is a tendency for criminal trials to degenerate into public spectacles, frequently interrupting the orderly procedure of justice, and not infrequently actually prejudicing the accused. If no useful purpose is served by the presence of the idle public during the deadly serious determination of guilt or innocence, should not the judge, subject to the right of admittance …

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Consequences To Seller And Buyer Of Covenant Not To Compete, Richard B. Barnett S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The owners of the entire capital stock of a newspaper business received an offer of $1,000,000 for their stock and a covenant not to compete with buyers for ten years. After the offer was accepted and the contract of sale drawn up, buyer asked for a clause in the contract evaluating the covenant not to compete at $50 a share and the stock at $150 a share in order to help him taxwise. The clause was accepted with little discussion. The sellers reported the entire proceeds of the sale on their income tax returns as long term capital gain, but …

Harper: Problems Of The Family, Hobart Coffey

Michigan Law Review

A Book Review of Problems of the Family. By Fowler V. Harper

Civil Procedure - Compensation Of Witnesses In A Civil Action, David W. Belin S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

As the amount and complexity of litigation has increased, there have been corresponding increases in demands for added compensation of witnesses. Like the juror, the witness often receives the time-honored answer that he cannot be heard to complain that his compensation is inadequate; the administration of justice is a mutual benefit to all members of the community, and each is under a public duty to further it.

At common law witnesses received no compensation. Time spent in testifying was held to be claimed by the public as a tax, paid by the witness to the system of law which protected …

Civil Procedure - Judgments - Res Judicata Effect Of Declaratory Judgments, Robert G. Russell S.Ed..

Michigan Law Review

In a former action brought pursuant to the Colorado Declaratory Judgment Act, plaintiff was declared to have the right to use a certain roadway as dedicated and defendant was enjoined from interfering with or obstructing plaintiff's use of the same. Thereafter, plaintiff brought the present action to recover damages allegedly resulting from defendant's blockading of the road prior to the bringing of the former action. On appeal from a judgment for plaintiff, held, reversed. Where, as here, the damages were antecedent and might with propriety have been determined in the same proceeding in which the declaratory judgment alone was …